Furniture-nail.



No. 807.843. PATENTED DEC. 19, 1905. S. M. MERRILL.

FURNITURE NAIL.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 2, 1905.

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UNITED STATE PATENT OFFICE.

SHERBURN M. MERRILL, OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO MORLEY BUTTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF BOSTON, MASSA- OHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

FURNITURE-NAIL.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, SHERBURN M. MERRILL, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Newton, in the countyof Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and use ful Improvements in Furniture-Nails,of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the manufacture of nails, such as furniture upholstery nails, whereof the heads are composed of compacted plastic material, such as papier-mfich or leather-board; and it consists in sundry improvements presently to be described whereby the heads of nails of this character'are enabled to avoid or conceal the defacing or abrasive effects of the instrument wherewith they are driven in position in the furniture or other article of manufacture with which they are incorporated or which they are designed to ornament.

In the drawings hereto annexed which illustrate an embodiment of this invention, Figure 1 is a plan view of the top of a nail-head; and Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same, both figures illustrating my invention and improvement.

Furniture-nails of this general character have for some time been very extensively manufactured with nail-heads of papier-mach, indurated fiber, leather-board, and the like plastic and compressible material, and the shanks or spikes of the said nails are provided with heads or prongs which are embedded in the body of the nail-head by pressure in a suitable setting-machine. By the operation of the dies of these machines the plastic nail-heads are not only secured to the nail-shanks, but are, moreover, closely compacted and given a smooth surface. This surface is so smooth and hard that it assumes quite a high polish, and such nails are therefore in large demand by furniture dealers and others. The high finish which nail-heads of this character assume renders them more or less liable to defacement and abrasion by the hammer or similar tool employed by the user in driving the nails, and this, to a slight extent, it is true, but nevertheless measurably, detracts from the final finish of the nail- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 19, 1905.

Application filed February 2, 1905. Serial No. 243,810.

head, especially as the defacement of one nailhead can never be exactly the same as that of another, so that where regularity of appearance is to be desired irregularity inevitably ensues.

My invention consists in an improved nailhead of the character above described which obviates or masks the defect mentioned so that the accidental abrasion or defacement of a nail or the heads of a row of nails will no longer be perceptible and the nails when assembled in an article of furniture will present aregular, uniform, and therefore pleasing appearance. I form the upper die, with which the nail-head is pressed into its final form, with slightly-raised ridges, arranged, preferably, so as to form a slightlyirregular pattern. WVhen the nail -head is compressed by means of this die, the ridges of the die-surface mold or impress on the exposed surface of the nail-head a network of fissures or depressions which reproduce in intaglio the pattern made in relief on the surface of the die. All the button-heads struck from this die will of course be exactly the same and have the same pattern or network of fissures molded in its exposed upper surface. The result is to make a slight contrast in appearance between the fissured portion of the surface and the remainder of the surface of the nail-head. In driving these nails although the hammer or similar instrument may be expected to bruise the nail, as in the case of the ordinary smooth-topped button, yet this slight bruising or abrasion due to these causes will not be perceptible, because of the greater apparent irregularity and diversity of surface produced by the shallow fissures originally impressed in the buttonhead. Thus the slight accidental defacement of the nails is obscured or masked by the intentionally-impressed pattern, whereas in the smooth nail heretofore used such abrasions were much more easily perceptible.

Nails of this character are necessarily shipped in bulk and usually in quite large quantities. The opportunities therefore for a point of one nail to scratch the head of another are almost infinitely multiplied When the nails are in transit from one place to another. The result of impressing the nailheads with fissures, as above described, ma-

terially reduces the perceptible damage to the nail-head surfaces by this cause.

I havefound it advantageous also so to determine the arrangement of the fissures in the button-head that a number of them converge or are arranged more closely together than elsewhere at or near the center of the button-head. It is at this point that the blows of the driving-tool are normally directed, and therefore the indentation of the fissures, so that they convergeand are collected at or near this point, more surely produce the effect above described,and, moreover, this specific arrangement also locally compacts or hardens the body of the button-head so that it is better qualified than other portions of the button to resist the effects of the driving-tool.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A furniture nail, having a head of fibrous-felted material in the exposed surface whereof is impressed an irregular network of fissures.

2. A furniture nail, having a head of fibrous-felted material in the exposed surface whereof is impressed an irregular network of fissures, said fissures convergently collected at and near the center of the nail-head.

Signed by me at Boston, Suffolk county, Massachusetts, this 28th day of January, 1905.

SHERBURN M. MERRILL. l/Vitnesses:

J OSEPH T. BRENNAN, CHARLES D. VVOODBERRY. 

